Month: March 2019

A sea wall is a just a massive bandaid with the pustule underneath ready to erupt elsewhere. Are we to put sea walls around every erosion-vulnerable house? Sea level rise, storm tides and storm surges aren’t going to decline in frequency or magnitude so retreat is inevitable, protection is only ever going to be temporary.https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/precedent-collaroy-residents-to-get-state-subsidy-for-sea-walls-20190329-p5190y.html

Across the environment sector, there’re research organisations, policy organisations, activist organisations and others. There’s a group with an approach to fit most citizens. They just about all earn the ire of governments, particularly authoritarian strong-man governments, which prefer to avoid challenge and scrutiny. Narendra Modi heads one such government and his threats to civil society in general, and to Greenpeace in particular, are to be resisted for the good of all.https://newmatilda.com/2019/03/29/profit-before-people-why-india-has-silenced-greenpeace/

Hoons shredding this regrowth area reminds us that we have a long way to go in enlisting the whole population in environmental care and protection. Despondency is understandable, persistence is necessary.https://www.canberratimes.com.au/canberra-news/never-seen-anything-like-it-hoons-shred-up-regrowth-area-20190326-p517me.html

Matteo Canavani trots out those well-worn political strategies yet again, python squeezes and wrecking balls on the economy, the $100 meat tray and the end of the Bunnings sausage sizzle. Ah, you can’t beat a scare campaign, eh?https://reneweconomy.com.au/coalitions-canavan-launches-the-sausage-sizzle-climate-scare-campaign-41425/

Under stress (Latham’s NSW upper house win alone for PHON will do it) one looks for left-field distractions. Here’s one and it shows how serious climate change impacts are whacking us – Canberra’s autumn display will not be so colourful. Wow, this is bad.https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/climate-change-putting-canberra-s-spectacular-autumn-displays-at-risk-20190313-p513vf.htmlI might have got over it by tomorrow.

While I get what Jeff Sparrow is arguing re wilderness no longer existing, we found a fair approximation of what it was on the South Coast Track in Tasmania. And regarding indigenous people in the Australian landscape, if you haven’t read Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu, do yourself a favour and get a copy. It is required reading.

If we left it up to the market to decide … we’d see cities that few would like to live in, too many people locked out of health services, we’d be keeping the coal clunker generators going. In fact, the coal clunkers’ emissions are evidence of market failure, we subsidise their waste disposal whether we like it or not.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/20/heres-why-australia-needs-to-keep-subsidising-renewables

I’ve gone off-list with this one. This article in the Guardian re climate action as the antithesis of white supremacy is worth the read.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/19/why-youll-never-meet-a-white-supremacist-who-cares-about-climate-change

ISO 14008 counts the cost of environmental damage. ‘Few things yield such an impact as these type of heavyweight, international standards’. And gradually the pieces are being assembled!https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190318111950.htm